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DEA sees increase in lethal fake medications

The Drug Enforcement Administration is alerting the public about the increased availability of potentially lethal fake prescription pills.

The DEA states these pills contain fentanyl and methamphetamine.

This is the first public safety alert the DEA has made in six years, and it tells of a criminal drug network that mass produces these fake pills in labs and deceptively markets them as legitimate prescription pills.

These drugs are killing unsuspecting Americans at an unprecedented rate, a DEA news release states. Fake prescription pills are widely accessible, often sold on social media and e-commerce platforms — making them available to anyone with a smartphone, including minors.

More than 9.5 million counterfeit pills were seized so far this year across the 50 states, the DEA stated, which is more than the last two years combined.

“What is particularly alarming is how these pills are often marketed and packaged as legitimate prescription medications,” said DEA special agent in charge Keith Martin, who oversees drug cases in Ohio. “To the naked eye they appear to be the same pill you would get at a local pharmacy, when in fact they often contain lethal dosages of fentanyl.

“This summer alone we have seized hundreds of thousands of fake pills,” Martin said.

LETHAL

Capt. Tony Villanueva, head of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s TAG drug task force, acknowledged the fake pills are being circulated in the Mahoning Valley.

“We have seen an increase of investigations involving suspected counterfeit pills,” Villanueva said. “During our investigations, we have intel that some of the pills being sold on the street are laced with suspected fentanyl. We currently have investigations in which we are waiting for results from (the state’s crime lab) to find the chemistry in pills that were submitted for analysis.”

As recently as Wednesday, TAG officers made a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in Trumbull County and encountered a number of suspected fake pills, which now are being tested at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab.

Villanueva said it’s important to get the word out to local communities about these fake pills that could contain lethal doses.

“They are getting them here by whatever means they can, and they are trying to exploit every mechanism possible: the border, ports, commercial shipping, the mail, and more,” Martin said.

The DEA and local law enforcement, such as TAG and the Mahoning County law enforcement task force commanded by Sgt. Larry McLaughlin, are “all laser-focused on stopping the drugs at every current and potential entry point and pursuing those who distribute them in our communities,” he said.

MEXICO AND CHINA

The vast majority of counterfeit pills brought into the United States are produced in Mexico, and China is supplying chemicals for the manufacturing of fentanyl in Mexico, the DEA release stated.

Many of these fake pills contain at least two milligrams of fentanyl, which is considered lethal. A deadly dose of fentanyl is small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil, the DEA release states.

McLaughlin said he is not surprised these fake pills are laced with fentanyl.

“Fentanyl seems to be more prevalent nowadays than heroin on the streets,” McLaughlin said — noting his crew is seeing a lot of Oxycontin pills on the street laced with fentanyl.

These counterfeit pills are are made to look like real prescription opioid medications such as oxycodone (Oxycontin or Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and alprazolam (Xanax); or stimulants such as amphetamines (Adderall).

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 93,000 people died of a drug overdoses in the United States during 2020. Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid most commonly found in the counterfeit pills, is the primary driver of this alarming increase in overdose deaths.

Drug poisonings involving methamphetamine, increasingly found to be pressed into counterfeit pills, also continue to rise as illegal pills containing methamphetamine become more widespread.

Drug trafficking also is linked to gun violence. This year alone, DEA has seized more than 2,700 firearms in connection with drug trafficking investigations — a 30 percent increase since 2019.

The warning does not apply to certified physicians writing prescriptions. Anyone filling a prescription at a licensed pharmacy can be confident that the medications they receive are safe when taken as directed by a medical professional, the DEA release states.

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